Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Matt Cain!

Matty got his first spring start today and put up three zeroes. Gameday says he threw 14 pitches for 14 strikes. (I guess Spring Training Gameday has a few kinks.) His previous start was axed due to bad weather, but I heard on good authority that he was "dominating" in his workout. Way to go, Matty.

We all had to endure a Matt Cain who was not Matt Cain for the first half of the season last year. Then the Matt we know and love returned. Please stay forever, Good Matt.

6 comments:

“We haven’t said anything to each other,” said Cain, whose first start was washed out by a tarp malfunction in Mesa. “We just all kind of know that’s what we need to do. We didn’t carry the load we needed to last year.”

The first half of last year, someone snatched away Matt Cain, and it was really Ryan Grim taking his place. Once they figured it out, and got Cain out of being held hostage, he came back and was of course himself. Really, have you ever seen Cain and Grim in the same room? I thought not. Giants over dodgers this year, by at least a half dozen.

You and me both about Sandoval. Plus Morse is looking healthy too. And I think Belt can continue what he did at the end of 2013.

Imagine a middle lineup of Belt, Posey, Sandoval, Pence, and Morse, all healthy and hitting to their potential, even if Scutaro is out, Pence or Belt could bat 2nd and just hit and get on base a lot.

And I think the pitching will be greatly improved. Cain turned the corner last season. Hudson is a huge improvement over Zito. Lincecum looks like he has but when you have Bumgarner, Cain, Hudson atop your rotation, anything awesome that Lincecum provides is the whip cream on top, and not a necessary component of a winning season. And Bumgarner just wants to get better every season and he's still only 24 YO. And even if Vogie falters (and so far so good), there is Petit, Escobar, Kickham, and others who might be ready once those options are exhausted by mid-season, Crick, Blackburn (my bet), Blach (Bochy was impressed enough to comment), Mejia. And that don't include what Stratton and Agosta might do in San Jose, now that they are hopefully fully recovered from their 2013 health issues.

And the bullpen. Romo is Romo. Affeldt is finally healthy, he's back to 2009 shape he claims (and he had good seasons even when hampered; and no wonder his son jumping on him injured him...). And we got a lot of young guns with heat chomping on the bit, Hembree, Law, Osich, De Paula, Strickland, among others, plus any of the young starters above could start out in the bullpen too.

These are all reasons why I'm thinking this team can rival the 2003 season/team. I think we can leave the Dodgers in the dust, both because of the above, and because they weren't as good as they looked in 2013.